Directed by the incomparably charismatic George Clooney, The Boys in the Boat dropped in theaters on Christmas Day 2023. How fitting – if I were to sum this film up in a single sentence, I might be tempted to say something like, “it’s the perfect movie to take the family to on Christmas.” It’s easy…a nice and smooth sports underdog story plotted with triumphant moment after triumphant moment. I saw a review on Rotten Tomatoes that proclaimed, “dads will love The Boys in the Boat,” and yeah…that hits. There are elements of this film that reminded me of the 90s and 2000s era feel-good sports flicks that had a little something for every member of the family to latch onto.
Callum Turner plays Joe Rantz straight up, but I have no issue with the performance, and found that Turner actually flashed some real potential as a leading man and anchor character in this film. Joel Edgerton is reliable as the coach, Al Ulbrickson, but at times, it does seem like there’s an air of “stereotypical hard-nosed coach” permeating around him. Everyone else seems like background noise. The acting is fine enough, don’t get me wrong, but it’s clear that this story was streamlined not to explore any of the ancillary characters with any real depth. It was a disappointment for a guy who found the book to be one of the best sports books he’s read in quite some time.
In that, it raises a question that feels like has been around forever – how the hell do you chop up a story so big into a digestible form for moviegoers? I don’t envy Clooney having to do that, and I’d say he picked the safe route. This film profited at the box office, capitalizing on that holiday window. But, critically, it didn’t achieve the same success. Something about it felt a little too conventional and contrived. The supporting cast felt stoic and flat, but that’s more of a result of sacrificing depth in order to work one more Hallmark movie into the film. Clooney does a fine job – the movie feels polished and it knows what it wants to home in on. I loved the scene in which the Cal coach comes in to sign the check to make sure the Washington boys get to the Olympics. That was really the heart of the film for me. And, the actual racing scenes are thrilling. But, there was a lot of meat left on the bone with Rantz himself and plenty of the supporting characters in this large tale. Maybe you won’t mind that if you didn’t read the book, but I did, and I caught myself longing for The Boys in the Boat to slow down just a bit. The final rating from me: 2.5/5 stars. It’s easy viewing if you need it.
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Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.
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